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MIT Robot Walks On Water

Posted by timothy on from the just-not-evenly-distributed dept.

An anonymous reader writes "Researchers at MIT have solved the mystery of how water striders propel themselves across water surfaces and in the process have created a robot called Robostrider that mimics the behavior. With cool stuff like this, it's no wonder MIT is number one in engineering."

6 of 283 comments (clear)

  1. Case of the Mondays by MhzJnky · · Score: 3, Informative

    Slashdot had a case of the mondays and frogot itself

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    "Failure is not an option, it's part of the standard package"
    1. Re:Case of the Mondays by Saeger · · Score: 5, Informative
      Actually, it did. The 2nd link talked about the MIT strider bots.

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      Power to the Peaceful
  2. Dupe by Saeger · · Score: 5, Informative
    This water strider story was posted two weeks ago, but because the way it was worded this time, the focus of the posts will probably be on robots (and dupe flaming) rather than the Christian Science Monitor being remarkably unbiased. :)

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    Power to the Peaceful
  3. Re:Eh?? by dollargonzo · · Score: 4, Informative

    it's no mystery as to how they stay afloat. the big question was how they propel themselves

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    BSD is for people who love UNIX. Linux is for those who hate Microsoft.
  4. Re:Eh?? by thelen · · Score: 4, Informative

    The question is about propulsion, not weight-to-surface tension ratios sufficient for flotation. This research gives a better explanation of the mechanism by which the water skimmers move with such great efficiency (namely by created subsurface vortices with their middle pair of legs) and puts to rest the notion that it is attributable to the waves themselves created by a rowing action.

  5. Re:Censored photos of waterstrider sex? by RebelWithoutAClue · · Score: 3, Informative

    This guy _might_ have been trying to make a point about censorship in the world, or maybe just trying to crack a joke ? :)

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    "However beautiful the strategy, you should occasionally look at the results" - Winston Churchill